Star Wars: The Clone Wars - "Sabotage" Review

The Jedi Temple Targeted...

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February 9, 2013

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

It feels strange that The Clone Wars is already going into its final story arc of the season. Yes, this season is two episodes shorter than previous ones, but the other reason it feels so abrupt I think is simply this format of always doing four episode storylines now, which means we really only get a handful of stories each season, albeit told in several parts each. I do wish they’d mix it up more and only do the longer story arcs when the story needs it, but “Sabotage” was a strong episode that hopefully will lead into another satisfying arc, on the heels of the Darth Maul one.

The interesting thing is if I didn’t know there were three more episodes continuing this storyline, I’d assume “Sabotage” was a self-contained story, though one that was establishing elements the series could use later. We began to really hear about the unpopularity of the war with the general populace here and how it’s affecting the Jedi. And the fact that a Jedi seemed to be the perpetrator of a horrible bombing 00 even if that was eventually disproved -- is obviously laying the groundwork for the Republic at large turning on the Jedi in Revenge of the Sith and believing Palpatine’s lies about them. On the other hand, those protesters specifically seemed to be anti-Clone when it came to their animosity (their logo reflected this, to be sure), so I’m curious if upcoming episodes will show how Palpatine begins to have the public see the Clone Troopers on the right side of the things and the Jedi… elsewhere.

Obi-Wan is also on the Jedi council now, which is another sign we’re getting closer to Revenge of the Sith in the timeline. Although I would have liked to have seen an episode dealing with his ascension to this position.*

However, it was very interesting how this episode brought up the idea of non-Jedi working in the Jedi temple, as Letta (who’s husband, Jackar, was the suspect for much of the episode) noted all Jackar had gone through to get that security clearance. Ahsoka remarking, “I would have thought working for the Jedi paid better” seeing the home they lived in also added an interesting touch of the haves vs. the have nots to this scenario.

This episode is the first of four episodes named after Hitchcock films, and the mood and atmosphere matched that idea – this was a darkly lit, noir-type story, as Ahsoka and Anakin went on their investigation through Coruscant. Then on the sci-fi front, it had the very cool-looking playback of the hologram recording of the explosion itself, that Ahsoka walked through. And on the heels of WAC, who else was relieved to meet Russo-ISC, a perfectly competent, un-annoying droid character? (voiced by Clone Wars MVP Dee Bradley Baker)

This episode also didn’t shy away from more adult-leaning content, from the hand we saw coming out of the wreckage of the explosion to the reveal (which involved a dismembered hand!) that poor Jackar was turned, unwittingly it seems, into a human bomb.

Despite being more about investigation, "Sabotage" also delivered some strong action, including a fun aerial battle at the start – I am a sucker for the times Star Wars takes these kind of battles into the atmosphere, rather than space, and the visual of all those buzz droids tearing apart the bottom of Anakin’s ship was simultaneously funny and creepy. Ahsoka’s race to stop the fleeing Letta was also amusing, including her leap over a droid and her Spider-Man like crouch when she caught up to her.

I do have to point out that it was pretty silly when Anakin’s big “Ah hah!” moment was Letta saying Jakar was dead. “Nobody ever said he was dead!” declared Anakin, but Ahsoka had just told Letta that nanodroids “made him the bomb,” which kind of didn’t allow for much survival…

In an episode that included the entire Jedi council, plus Anakin and Ahsoka, it was a nice touch to also meet Cin Drallig on The Clone Wars for the first time, who is glimpsed briefly in Revenge of the Sith having a fight to the death with Anakin, after he turns to the Dark Side (and any of you who played the Revenge of the Sith video game will recall playing out that battle there). Given how things end for these two, it leant an ominous note to meeting Cin in the midst of having close conversation with Anakin…

*A couple of people in the comments are saying we'd seen Obi-Wan on the council already on this series. If so, sorry, I'm completely blanking on that!